Re: [Evolution] Inbox too large

From: Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>

To: evolution-list gnome org

Subject: Re: [Evolution] Inbox too large

Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:25:39 +0100

On Thu, 2009-10-01 at 02:00 -0700, anders70 wrote:

The 'interesting' point is, that the older emails in the top part of the
Inbox had already been moved to other subfolder a long time ago, without
actually beeing deleted from the Inbox file. So I didn't loose anything by
trimming the top off the Inbox file. I supposed that "moving" a message,
actually first copies it, and then deletes the original. So logically, I
assumed that the messages I have moved out of the Inbox, was removed from
the Inbox file.

It depends what you mean by "logically" - to me (knowing how the data is
stored!) it is "logical" to implement a move function as "copy and
delete". It's to do with efficient manipulation of large files.

Now I have realized that I should have used the 'Expunge' function after
moving mails out of the Inbox, in order to ensure they are actually removed
from the Inbox file.

I would strongly advise everyone to turn off the "Hide Deleted Messages"
function - at least then you can see what is happening.

Some sort of warning/reminder that the Inbox file is reaching a a ridiculous
size might be nice in future versions, along with an advice to use the
Expunge function :-)

It depends what you mean by a "ridiculous size"! Some people get
stressed if they have a inbox with more than a couple of messages in it!
Others keep their whole life in it - and get really, really stressed if
you even hint that they might have to reduce the size of their 2Gb inbox
with 40,000 messages in it.
P.